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© EM 2024
Thesis: Community-Driven Consumer Companies & the Pro-Aging Industry
By: Emily Herrera
As purchasing power increases and education about creating companies grows, there are more individuals that want to add value to companies that have missions to which they align. As long as individuals share the values as the founder, the individual feels empowered to watch the company succeed and add to the success of the company.
GenZ will become one of the most disruptive generations with a high purchasing power. The expectation on quality of consumer products has risen with instantaneous reviews and echo-chamber strength. GenZ will expect more from the experiences that they face, and will expect that for those they care about. By 2030 all baby boomers will be age 65 or older and Generation Z will be 16-34 years old -- in their prime spending years. They will encourage companies that will settle their aging parents comfortably and create communities similar to those to which Generation Z has been accustomed to.
Pro-aging is a lifestyle that is active and comfortable in society. Aging is a stigma and stigmas, historically, are challenged through supportive communities. This will specifically affect the aging experience in the US.
Market Overview
- Approximately 23 million Americans are very active in online communities.(Pew 2013)
- Gen Zers have a spending power of over $140 billion. (Business Insider 2020)
- Baby boomers hold $2.6 trillion in buying power. (Lexington Law 2021)
Risks
- Adoption: Older boomers are more risk averse. (Gilliam 2010)
- Community-driven companies succeed in the long-term.
- Baby Boomers should take control over their own communities, but there is no guarantee. (Heavy GenZ intervention can lose authenticity of learning what works for Baby Boomers.)
- Baby Boomers not identifying as an aging population and refusing to align with a community that identifies as such.
Competition
- Community-driven companies come with the potential of losing retention of members, or customers. If there is a community that loses traction or does not change experiences or expectations of the member in time, individuals can choose to go to another community.
- Another alternative is one not wanting to find community and choosing as an individual; however, in aging, it is a shared experience that groups (specifically in gender and ethnicity) experience differently.